PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 



4636 



PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 



the health of the Philippines what Doctor Gor- 

 gas did for the Panama Canal Zone. 



Roads, Railroads and Commerce. The first 

 and worst mistake which the inexperienced 

 colonists made in roadbuilding was in over- 

 looking the terrific force of the tropic rainfall. 

 Sometimes over 100 inches of water fall in a 

 year, and twelve inches in a day is not unusual, 

 almost twice as much as in the entire raini- 

 est month in the rainiest parts of the United 

 States. A good macadam road could be washed 

 out in a month, and plain dirt surfacing is 

 commonly of no value at all. The cost of the 

 road fifty-five miles long to Baguio, the sum- 

 mer capital, was estimated at $75,000, but it was 

 not completed until over $2,000,000 had been 

 spent upon it, owing to the fact that even its 

 supposedly solid rock base was dissolved by the 

 freshets. There are now over 1,000 miles of 

 first-class concrete roads in the islands, each 

 kilometer of which has in the rainy season an 

 attendant, or caminero, to keep it in constant 

 repair; in the dry season one man tends two 

 kilometers. There are also 4,000 miles of less 

 permanent roads. 



At the end of the Spanish rule there were 

 120 miles of privately-owned railroad in Luzon. 

 Americans added several hundred miles to this, 

 and they constructed lines in Cebu and Panay, 

 and in September, 1916, the government as- 

 sumed the control of the Manila Railroad, the 

 most important in the archipelago. Steamship 

 lines between the islands have been encouraged 

 by subsidies, in order to unite their people. 



The results of good government are now 

 showing in dollars and cents. Hemp continues 

 to be the most valuable export, but because 

 other articles are increasing in importance it 

 now forms less than half instead of nearly all 

 the trade. Sugar and copra (dried cocoanut 

 meat) bring several million dollars a year. Fac- 

 tories have recently been established to make 

 cocoanut oil in the islands, and in the year 

 ending June 30, 1916, the shipments of it nearly 

 reached the three million dollar mark. To- 

 bacco and its products form another large divi- 

 sion of exports, and embroideries, hats and fiber 

 products have increasing sale. 



Half the imports of the islands are from the 

 United States, for there has been free trade 

 between the two countries since 1909. The 

 treaty with Spain provided that for ten years 

 Spanish goods should be admitted on the same 

 terms as American, but the tariff makers in 

 Washington did not hesitate to evade their ob- 

 ligations in effect while keeping them in the 



letter. This they did by giving to both coun- 

 tries a reduction of twenty-five per cent in du- 

 ties, but imposing the highest tariffs on thr 

 classes of goods which Spain produces. From 

 1904 to 1914 imports from the United States 

 mounted from five to thirty million dollars; 

 the increase in total imports was only two mil- 

 lion dollars more. Rice is still brought from 

 Indo-China in large quantities, especially in 

 years of drought. 



American Rule, or Self-Government. There 

 are few questions of national or international 

 politics so difficult for an individual to solve 

 without being influenced by prejudiced opinion 

 as is the problem of the future of the Philip- 

 pines. The Republican party in the United 

 States, which purchased the islands, has always 

 advocated keeping them. The Democrats ha\ v 

 as consistently urged giving them their inde- 

 pendence; President Wilson in his first mes- 

 sage to the Filipinos said: 



We regard ourselves as trustees, acting not for 

 the advantage of the United States, but for the 

 benefit of the people of the Philippine Islands. 



Unfortunately, as so often happens, both sides 

 go to extremes in their arguments. In general 

 the Republican attitude is that the United 

 States drove the Spanish out of the islands as 

 a military necessity, that having done so it was 

 its duty to assume the responsibility of govern- 

 ing them, that when it has completed the task 

 of civilizing the people will be the time to con- 

 sider ceasing guardianship. Acting upon this 

 belief the Republican government inaugurated 

 the tasks of education, sanitation and unifica- 

 tion. They gave to the Filipinos an elective 

 legislative assembly, but placed over it the ap- 

 pointive Commission in which Americans were 

 in the majority, so effectively curtailing the 

 actual powers of the people that the phrase 

 "toy government" was in common circulation. 

 The wild tribes were placed in direct charge of 

 the Commission, and the Moros were kept un- 

 der military domination. 



When the Democrats assumed power in 1913 

 they gave the Filipinos a majority on the 

 Commission, replaced many American civil- 

 service employees by natives and withdrew the 

 soldiers from the Moro country. They intro- 

 duced the Jones Bill into Congress, providing 

 for the Philippines a government modeled after 

 that of the United States, with both legislative 

 houses elected by the people, the American 

 governor to have veto power, and the Supreme 

 Court of the United States to be above the 

 native courts. Under such an act the relation 



